After answering over a few hundred tests in the past 10 years, I never thought I would ever be happy with 55%, But that has changed, and by how! I have honestly never been happier with my result.

A little build up on the scenario:

Post 10th - After scoring over 85% you take up science, and would kill for a vocational subject.Post 12th - After slogging for over 1 1/2 years, you finally give your HSC, then you give JEE, then AIEEE, then BITSAT, and if still there's some life left in you, you appear for CET.

In case your smart make that really really smart you manage to get into a college on merit, else in case you're lucky enough to have a rich daddy, or like the majority of Indians come under a minority tag you manage to get in.Now, that was the easy part what follows is years of struggle of what will be a B.E. degree.

College begins, and by the time you sober down you realize your internal tests are on, then you have your practical exams and then finally you're in, for the university exams. Now the exams, as in case of the Mumbai University is one month of exams, each paper is spaced by around 5-6 days. 6 days is all you need for revision. But the problem is for revision you first need to study, that's where smart play comes in.

Smart play by student:Now this is what students think they are good ate.g. 1) take BEE, you'd realize that just 2 chapters, AC/DC (no, not the band) make up of 50% of the marks, so you leave the rest for option.e.g. 2) You open you maths book, and realize that you are actually capable of solving 9 out of 10 sums. The 10th one is too much, for your modest brain, so you leave that.

Smarter play by paper-setter:The BEE paper will hardly have 20 marks from AC/DC and even Phd holders in electronics won't be able to solve and your maths paper will have only the sums that were too much for you.Think you're too unlucky?

Friday, March 28, 2008

Korn, came out with a song called 'evolution', some time around last year. The video shows a few scientists trying to explain a phenomenon which they call as 'de-evolution of man'. They put forth some pretty decent evidence supporting their claim; alongside this, they manage to compare a chimpanzee with man. Finally however the theory is rejected, in true yankee style.

To the casual observer, evolution is a thing of the past, something you'll come across in your history books, but the truth is man is evolving at a much faster rate than ever before. Even if you would compare today's average man, with that of the 1900's you'd find some difference. I really can't say if this is something that's desirable or isn't. But one thing is for sure that 500 years from today, man will not be the same.

Coming back to a more realistic dimension, there's been some evolution rather de-evolution happening with me on a personal level. There was a time I would score 80% and be sad about missing a rank, today after scoring 40/100 in 3 subjects, I can undoubtedly say that I'm frigging happier than anyone else. So from an academic point of view a de-evolution might have taken place, but ain't I happier now?

Thursday, March 27, 2008

For any given question there will always be two possible answers. No matter what answer you pick, there's never a middle path, it's always a positive one or a negative one. Everything from computers to cars works on this. There is either an on or an off, there's no third possibility.

Wherever life takes us, there will always be a point of time when we need to make a decision, it doesn't matter if you like making decisions or try to avoid them. The truth is that everyone on this planet has to make choices. A few may have to take a choice for a few million others, but that doesn't make it necessarily an important one. The president of USA may have to make a choice between supporting the Dalai Lama or condemning him. This will in turn directly influence world politics. But the system that has put Mr. President in charge of taking such a decision is built up completely on a wonder called democracy which would again fall back to choice.

The point that stands out is how a choice is made. You either operate on your instincts and act, or think and make a decision. Throughout my life I have been working with the latter and at this quarter life phase that I'm passing through, I realize, I may not get a chance to work with the former method. In other words I will now try to work more on instinct or what I feel is right, rather do what I think is right. I will leave the thinking part for the after-thoughts.

PS: Ideally this should have been the first post in the blog, but as I said I'm not exactly living a ideal life, so it should not make much of a difference. Coming back to the blog, I would love to have it named just 'afterthoughts' but due to limitation of blogger names, I have added the in black part, because I always wanted to do something for black. The rockers have done their bit for the other colors, purple(deep purple), red(red hot chili peppers), green (green day) now its the time for some colored blogs ;)

Monday, March 24, 2008

"It was right then that I started thinking about Thomas Jefferson on the Declaration of Independence and the part about our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And I remember thinking how did he know to put the pursuit part in there? That maybe happiness is something that we can only pursue and maybe we can actually never have it. No matter what. How did he know that?"

-Christopher Gardner

Most people think of life as chasing goals and more often than not, after tackling all sorts of difficulties, they realize they are now still further from the goalpost than when they began.

It's odd too see how people look up at attaining happiness and lose out on the journey called 'The Pursuit of Happiness'. Why is happiness something that has to be pursued? Why can't everyone have it?

A Plan For The Future

An investment banker was on the pier of a small coastal village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. His boat was full of beautiful yellow tuna. The banker complimented the fisherman on his catch, asking how long it took to catch.

The fisherman replied, "Only a short time."

The banker asked, "Why not stay out and catch more?"

The fisherman replied, "I've enough fish to feed my family."

The banker then asked what did the fisherman do with the rest of his time, and he replied, "I will sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a siesta with my wife, stroll into the village each evening, sip wine with my friends, play my guitar. I have a full and busy life."

The banker was not impressed. "I have a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds buy a bigger boat and from those increased proceeds you could buy several boats and soon have a fleet. Instead of selling your fish to a middleman, you could control production, processing and distribution by building your own cannery. You could leave this small coastal village and move to the city then to New York where you could run your expanding enterprise."

The fisherman asked, "How long will this take?"

The banker said, "Ten to 20 years. Then you would announce an IPO and sell your stock to the public, making millions and millions."

"But what then?"

"Ah, now you get to the best part", said the banker smiling. "You could retire to a small coastal village where you could sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings, sip wine and play your guitar with your friends."